


Once More, With Even More Feeling

by GracieBirdie



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (not that he knows that), (through manslaughter), Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Attempt at Humor, BAMF Harry Potter, But They Didn't Have Kids, Crack Treated Seriously, Daddy Kink, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Harry has a beard, M/M, Master of Death Harry Potter, Morally Grey Harry Potter, Older Harry Potter, POV Alternating, Past Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Son & Mother Bonding, Sugar Baby Severus Snape, Sugar Daddy Harry Potter, Very seriously, Younger Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-18
Updated: 2020-04-18
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:48:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23723347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GracieBirdie/pseuds/GracieBirdie
Summary: AU in which Harry Potter accidentally travels back in time and ‘accidentally’ saves himself and his parents from Voldemort. Oops.Deciding that since he’s already fucked up the time line he might as well go wild with it.Cue Harry becoming the funnest uncle (take that Sirius), a more than active member of the Wizengamot (fuck you Malfoy), and falling (reluctantly) in love with a certain surly potions master.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Severus Snape, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 74
Kudos: 981





	Once More, With Even More Feeling

**Author's Note:**

> So I just spent the last two and a half days busting this out after having writer's block for more than five months.
> 
> Yes, I know I have more than one wip out there but my muse is a fickle creature I can't control. We all have our own burdens to bear and the slow updates of my wips is mine (and yours I suppose, if you take it onto yourself. Please don't do that tho i'm very possessive)
> 
> unfortunately necessary disclaimer: there are going to be spelling/grammatical errors in this. I already know this. No, I'm not going to fix them now that I've already posted this. No, I don't want a beta. Anyone who still decides to point these things out to me will get a mean and/or bitchy response (or completely ignored depending on my mood). Don't like it don't read it.

Harry Potter didn’t mean to travel back in time.

But then again, Harry Potter didn’t mean to do _most_ things he did.

Half the time things just happened to him and he just went along with it.

(Hermione liked to point out that that was no way to live but he liked to point out that things had worked out fine so far. (If one ignored everything with Voldemort.))

Harry had been standing in front of the ruins of the house his parents had been murdered in, trying for the 58th time to destroy the elder wand, hoping that maybe if he was standing somewhere were personal tragedy had happened to him that Death would finally get the memo and come pick up Their wand.

He wasn't holding out too much hope, after all he considered Hogwarts to have been the bigger tragedy but he thought, because he hadn't known everyone that died there personally that it maybe not be enough. (And after 57 times he had started to completely run out of ideas. If a dragon eating the wand had no effect on it he doubted a simple _Confringo_ would cut it.)

The spell had just made contact when suddenly the wand left out a harsh white light.

Harry was temporarily blinded and by the time he’d been able to blink his eyesight back he realized that what once had been a beautiful sunny day had turned into a chilly night.

He looked down at the (fully intact) elder wand that was sitting innocently on the cobblestones in front of him.

“I hate you.” he told it.

The wand didn’t reply.

Harry picked it up and slid it back into the inside pocket of his jacket. Something strange was going on and he would rather not leave something that had been affectionately named ‘the death stick’ just laying around where anyone could pick it up. (He learned that from experience.)

Invincible wand put away, Harry finally took stock of his surroundings.

As he had already noticed, it had become night in the blink of an eye.

And the house in Godric’s Hollow which had previously been a perverse shrine to the first fall of Voldemort had suddenly become a pleasant looking cottage.

Looking at it all fixed up Harry was suddenly deeply sad he’d never gotten around to cleaning it up.

Although considering his parents had been _murdered_ in it he supposed he could be forgive for being so behind on his to-do list.

Wait–

Fixed up cottage, night time. What day was it? Surly it couldn’t be October… Teddy and Vicky’s kids would have been hounding him to take them ‘treating and tricking’ if it was…

Slowly Harry’s brain started to piece together what could be going on, but of course not fast enough to mentally prepare himself for dealing with Voldemort again after more than twenty years.

“Jamessss Potter.” A vaguely familiar voice hissed from behind him.

Harry didn’t even have time to swear before he was ducking out of the way of a _very_ familiar flash of green.

Twisting up from where he’d dived behind the stone fencing around the cottage he shot a wordless Expelliarmus at Voldemort for the second time in his life.

He’d been using the spell for twenty-five goddamn years, twenty of which had been spent successfully arresting criminals. Old habits were very hard to break.

Voldemort actually made a sort of spluttering sound like he just couldn’t fathom someone _taking away his wand_.

Harry didn’t give him time to try and summon it back.

He jumped over the stone fence and punched Voldemort right in the face, just like he’d wanted to do for thirty years.

People called him 'Two Punch Potter' for a reason.

When he finally cornered a witch or wizard that he had been hunting down first he took their wand and then he punched them in the face (or kneed them in the balls depending on the situation and who he was attempting to arrest).

Of course eventually people started to expect his tactics but for some reason they were never prepared for the left hook. It was like they all expected him to just drop his wand to throw the punch. What self respecting wizard just _dropped_ their wand to punch someone?

(Harry had, several times in his youth, accidentally dropped his wand when he went to punch someone. It took almost a year of practice to remember to hold onto it and throw with his left hand.)

Voldemort went down like a lead balloon and sprawled out on the walk for a moment, holding his cheek and looking shocked.

Obviously no one had punched him in a while. Probably not since he was a bunny murdering kid.

“Hey Tommy.” Harry said causally, putting both his and Voldemort’s wands in his back jeans pocket, and dropping down to straddle Voldemort’s waist. “You know, I never expected to see you again.”

He paused to wrap his hands around Voldemort’s neck, a possibly manic grin on his face. “But never let it be said I’m one to let an opportunity pass me by.”

(This was a complete lie. Opportunities passed him by all the time but the line sounded good in the moment.)

Voldemort flailed under Harry’s hands, chocking and struggling to speak, too shocked at the physical violence to remember that he could do wandless magic.

The shock passed though, and Harry found himself flying backwards through the air and crashing against the stone fence.

He heard a suspicious _crack_ and thought for a moment some of his ribs had broken but when he shifted experimentally he realized that, no, it had been the wands in his back pocket...

He was pretty sure someone had once told him not to keep wands there and obviously his awful memory had come back to bite him in the ass.

He groaned at his own stupidity while Voldemort held out his hand and tried to summon his wand to himself.

Harry felt the pieces of wand wiggle out from under his butt and go flying over to Voldemort, who, upon seeing his wand broken, started to wail.

Harry sighed very deeply and pulled the elder wand out of his jacket pocket.

The elder wand was almost vibrating in excitement at being used in a dual, something Harry usually pointedly tried not to do, despite the wand’s best efforts to the contrary.

And, just as Harry had been expecting, a telling green light started to glow at the end of the wand.

"Stop." he said between gritted teeth.

The wand obviously didn't listen to him.

The light grew brighter and then-

Voldemort turned around and fucking started running away.

"Don't think this is over, Potter!" he yelled over his shoulder, like he was a Bond villain or something.

Harry stared after him with his mouth wide open for a few seconds before he realized that the wand was actually starting to get hot in his hand.

He yelped and dropped the wand at the same time he heard the door to the cottage slam open.

"Who the fuck is out here?!" someone yelled from behind him.

He turned and standing there in the illuminated doorway was... his mother.

Who looked angry enough to commit murder.

"I _just_ put Ha-" she cut herself off and her mouth dropped open, eyes flicking between Harry and Voldemort, who was trying to book it down the street but wasn't really going very fast.

He probably didn't have much occasion to run around.

Unlike Lily Potter who had a rambunctious one year old.

She flew past Harry down the walkway and yelled " _Petrificus totalus_!"

Harry watched, mildly baffled, as Voldemort instantly went stiff and fell over right onto his face with a satisfying smack.

Harry's enjoyment over watching Voldemort's snake-ish face get hit twice in one night was cut short by Lily swinging around and pointing her wand right under Harry's nose.

"James!" she yelled, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Harry heard running footsteps behind him but didn't take his eyes off of Lily's wand.

He was about 95% sure that she wasn't about to kill him but that five percent wasn't worth taking chances with.

"Harry's alright." he heard his father say slightly out of breath and behind Harry in the doorway of the cottage.

Harry felt a little bit of dread pool in his stomach. Having two Harry's around was going to get annoying and confusing very quickly...

"Who the hell are you?" Lily asked, wand unwavering and eyes still hard.

"I'm not sure you'll believe me if I told you." he said, mildly awkward and a little confused over his mother being the one to jump to action when he knew his father had been the first one killed by Voldemort.

Maybe she had thought that Pettigrew had been running around yelling? Or maybe that there muggle kids out too late on Halloween? Either way Harry had to admit that Lily Potter was a little more terrifying than he had thought.

She looked him up and down, like she was judging his very soul and not liking what she saw at all.

Harry couldn't really blame her very much.

After his divorce from Ginny he'd sort of let himself go... and just never really got himself together again.

That wasn't to say he was out of shape, he couldn't be when he spent half his job literally running after escaping wizards and witches. Of course, the other half of the time he was sitting behind a desk doing paper work and being bribed with baked goods into training the lower level aurors.

The combination had left him fit but there was definitely a little more padding about him than there ever had been when he was in his 20s. Or even 30s...

And the beard with the new little flecks of gray in it wasn't helping to make him look any younger.

Hell, he was surprised Voldemort had mistaken him for his father at all-

Harry came to a sudden and horrifying realization.

He was twenty-one years older than his parents...

His parents were both twenty-one years old.

His parents... were practically _babies_.

His parents had been murdered before they even got to _live_.

Realistically Harry had known his parents died young since he was a kid, but knowing something and seeing how _fucking young_ his mother was were two different things.

"My god..." he whispered.

Lily's eyes flicked from Harry to James and back again questioningly.

James walked around Harry and took in him in and then Voldemort laying motionless in the street.

"Ah, Lils..." James said awkwardly, tapping his wand against his leg absently. "You wouldn't happen to think one of these guys is the dark lord would you?"

"Oh I'm sure of it." Lily said with a mean little smile on her face.

"Well it's not me." Harry said helpfully.

Lily didn't look at all impressed. "There's only one person who should know where we are."

Harry shrugged. "Guess the Fidelius Charm don't cover time travel, weird loophole."

Lily's eyes went wide for a moment before they narrowed again. "I don't believe you."

Harry shrugged. "You don't have to believe me."

His mind scrambled trying to come with something to say good enough that she wouldn't be tempted to actually kill him.

"I guess we could always just call Dumbledore and ask him his opinion. I'm sure he'll have some way to tell if I'm lying or not."

That should work. Dumbledore would be so curious about Harry that he probably won't end up cursed or in Azkaban without a trial.

Speaking of Azkaban he should probably try and find Sirius before he got it into his head to something stupid.

Lily hummed thoughtfully before she nodded at James who nodded back before he went back inside the house, hopefully to call Dumbledore.

"I think I know who you're _trying_ to look like." Lily said contemplatively.

Harry smiled at her encouragingly.

Her eyes just narrowed again.

"I think you're _trying_ to look like an older version of my son." she said finally.

Harry grinned at her. "Got it in one!" he said brightly.

Her wand twitch threateningly. "How did you get his hair for the potion?"

"Well," Harry said casually. "You see, it's _my_ hair so I didn't actually need to take a potion."

Lily looked mildly furious. "No one can time travel back, what, fifty years? It's just not possible."

"Hey..." Harry said, mildly offended. "You're right though, it's probably not possible. But I do impossible things before breakfast some days so I'm honestly not that shocked this has happened."

If Lily had decided that she wasn't going to kill Harry she suddenly looked like she'd just changed her mind again.

"You were letting the Dark Lord run away without even trying to stop him." she pointed out.

"He surprised me." Harry said with a shrug. "I wasn't expecting him to just run away like that. Honestly, I thought he knew how to do a wandless apparition or at least had a portkey on him for emergencies."

Harry certainly knew how to wandlessly apparate. It was a hard thing to learn how to do and he'd had to have several fingers and toes reattached while learning but he'd gotten it down eventually. Maybe Voldemort had just been too far gone mentally to want to risk it.

In which case he probably _did_ have a portkey and just hadn't had time to activate it. Harry made a mental note to search him over before the spell was released.

Although, now that he was thinking about it, Voldemort being petrified would make it considerably easier to just kill him so he wouldn't be able to run away before Harry could tell someone about his horcruxes.

He glanced over at Voldemort at the same time there was a _crack_ of apparition.

Harry thought for a moment that it might be Dumbledore finally showing up but the swooshy cloak was too familiar (and too black) to be Dumbledore.

Harry had forgotten that he was going to show up.

Lily spun away, wand trained on the new comer and leaving Harry with the perfect opportunity to attack her from behind.

He didn't take it of course, he would _never_ hit his own mother.

She hissed through her teeth, backing up and looking from Harry to Snape before she seemed to decide that Snape was the bigger treat. After all, she _knew_ he was a Death Eater and Harry was still only questionable.

She strode out of the gate and onto the street, which was very foolish of her and Harry had to fight not to drag her back into the safety of the Fidelius Charm.

Even if Harry thought she was a baby she _was_ a grown adult who could make her own choices and Harry had known too many strong-willed women to think he could stop her even if he had wanted to.

The best he could do was follow after and help her if she ran into trouble.

He paused for a moment to pick up the elder wand (which he suspected was sulking after being denied the use of the killing curse) before he stepped up next to Voldemort.

He gave the snake a casual kick against his shoulder, just because he could and he probably wouldn't have to fill out any paperwork about use of excessive force.

"Severus." she said, her voice tight and her wand flicking nervously in her hand.

"Lily..." Snape said softly, his eyes flicking between Lily, Voldemort, and Harry with a frown of his face. "You're alright..."

Ah yes, Harry remembered now. Snape had thought he might show up in time to help her. Because he (rightfully) didn't trust the Dark Lord.

How he knew where to go though, Harry had no idea.

"Of _course_ I'm alright!" Lily said, sounding a little indignant.

Harry absently kicked Voldemort again, this time rolling the fucker over onto his back.

Not an easy feat when he was literally as stiff as a board.

Harry went still at the sight of him.

"Uh...Lily?" he said hesitantly. (There was _no way_ he was going to call a twenty-one year old _mom_.)

"What?" she snapped and turned to look at where Harry was pointing down at Voldemort, who-

Seemed very dead.

Snape sucked in a harsh breath while Lily gasped in horror.

There lying on the cobblestone was the petrified body of Lord Voldemort, his own broken wand sticking up out of his chest with blood seeping out around it.

Snape crouched and carefully pressed his fingers against Voldemort's neck for a moment before he straightened back up again with a shake of his head. "He's not dead." he said, sounding strained.

"Not yet." Harry said calmly before he bent over and pulled the broken wand out of the wound. Blood gushed out and Voldemort managed to make a gurgling sound.

Lily and Snape both gaped at him and Harry just shrugged. "What? Do either of you actually _want_ to keep dealing with this fuck?"

They exchanged glances, hers shocked and his (rightfully) ashamed.

Before anyone had a chance to say anything else, or to even think about saving Voldemort's life, Harry heard footsteps behind them and turned to watch James and Dumbledore walking over to them.

"My my, what _is_ going on here?" Dumbledore asked, that insufferable twinkle visible in his eyes even in the dim light of the moon. (Harry definitely hadn't missed it (much.))

"Uh..." James said eloquently, looking from Harry, Lily, Snape, and Voldemort bleeding out.

"Headmaster." Lily said politely. "We would like to know who this man is and whether or not this is the real Dark Lord."

Dumbledore nodded sagely and looked Harry up and down. He flicked his wand at Harry several times, a frown slowly growing on his face the longer nothing happened.

Finally he pulled a little silver doohickey out of his bright purple robes and handed it to Harry, who took it gingerly.

He inspected the little thing and raised an eyebrow when it started to whistle.

Dumbledore went pale and his mouth actually dropped open in surprise. "Well." he said, visibly trying to get himself together.

James, too, looked shocked and Harry suspected he know what the thing was. Or Dumbledore had explained it to him before they came outside.

Lily groaned softly and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I take it that means he's telling the truth?"

"Well," Dumbledore said again, this time sounding more chipper. "That means that this man and little Harry share a blood relation that wasn't created through magical means. So at the very least this man is a relative of his."

Harry rolled his eyes and handed the doohickey back to Dumbledore, who once again looked surprised, like he hadn't been expecting Harry to give it back to him.

"Well, now that that's _one_ thing taken care of let's look at this supposed Dark Lord then." Dumbledore said, sounding much more like his usual self as he crouched down next to Voldemort's body.

He hummed considerably as his wand flicked and twitched and glowed softly. Finally he stood back up with a sigh. "This is most certainly the Dark Lord Voldemort and he is most certainly dead."

Harry felt viciously satisfied in a way he hadn't felt the first time he'd killed him. (Really killed him, not just destroyed his body because he could only remember bits and pieces of that.)

"Severus, may I see your arm?" Dumbledore said, braking Harry out of his inner musing.

Harry huffed, rolled his eyes, and tried to decide if he was annoyed on Snape's behalf. Dumbledore exposing one of Snape's 'secrets' like that was mildly disgusting.

Snape started to carefully pull the arm of his robe up, his face completely blank and Harry found himself reacting without really thinking about it.

He flicked his wand and crated a thin silvery barrier between Snape and Dumbledore and Lily and James. (And Harry too but he already wasn't looking. He seen the mark once, before Snape had been cremated, and wasn't interested in seeing it again.)

James and Lily spun around to look at Harry in shock.

"Why the hell did you do that?" James spluttered.

Harry shrugged. "You already know it's there but I don't see why he should have to satisfy your morbid curiosity when he doesn't want to."

"If we already know it's there why would it matter if we see it?" Lily asked, crossing her arms stubbornly over her chest.

Harry shot her a bland look. "Because it's not about you." he said calmly.

Lily started to look contemplative while James still looked mildly mutinous.

The barrier shimmered and then dissolved into shimmery silver sparks.

Dumbledore and Snape were both frowning at Harry, Dumbledore in that way he did when he was trying to read Harry's mind (not literally) and Snape in the way that he got when Harry actually knew the answer to a question Snape had been sure he wouldn't know.

Harry ignored both of them.

He was more interested in keeping an eye out for Sirius and/or Pettigrew. He was at least one of them would be showing up sooner or later.

"Now," Dumbledore said bright. "We must decide what we are going to tell everyone. We certainly can't say that someone possibly from the future killed the Dark Lord-"

"I didn't." Harry said without thinking. And then he frowned because he had technically had a hand in Voldemort's death, and he certainly hadn't done anything to help him...

Dumbledore looked mildly surprised for a moment before he turned to look at James and Lily. "Is this true?"

James and Lily both glanced at each other and shifted slightly uncomfortably.

"Um..." Lily said awkwardly.

No doubt she was slightly embarrassed to have accidentally stabbed the Dark Lord. While it certainly hadn't been her intention, she also hadn't done anything to do help save his life which was no doubt already starting to weigh on her conscious a little.

"Lily?" Dumbledore asked pointedly.

She shifted uncomfortably before she straightened up and shrugged. "I only petrified him."

Harry nodded in agreement. "He obviously brought it on himself. Really, a series of unfortunate events."

Everyone was staring at him in bewilderment.

"You..." Snape started, blinking at him. "You literally pulled the wand out of him..."

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, but none of use did anything to try and save him so there's equal share of blame, or if you all prefer, _the honor_ of letting him die."

Dumbledore cleared his throat pointedly and turned to look at Lily. "As I was saying and as Mr.-mh- _Potter_ said, a series of unfortunate, or perhaps, fortunate, events occurred here tonight to bring about the end of the the Dark Lord."

Harry sighed. "I'm sure you'll think of something appropriate to tell the masses." Harry paused and turned to look at Lily too, an idea forming. "I'm sure you could think of something that will make the blow land harder."

Lily looked from Harry to Dumbledore with a frown on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest and said "I'm not going to lie."

"No no, my dear, you won't have to lie at all." Dumbledore said encouragingly.

Lily sighed but it was obvious that she could see what they were saying.

James and Snape both looked mildly sour but neither of them were saying anything against the idea or coming up with a better idea of their own.

Finally Snape cleared his throat for a moment before he finally said "The only problem I see with this is that L-lily would become a larger target than she already was."

"Ah." Dumbledore said with a frown. "Yes, that's a good point Severus."

"Hey." Harry said brightly. "How about you guys change the secret keeper to, oh I don't know, _Remus_ or even better, just fucking go to the manor."

The day Harry had found out about the manor he'd turned right around and gone to scream at his parents graves, stopping only long enough to go buy alcohol.

The Potter ancestral manor was warded just as strongly as any other pureblood manor, over the years different members of the Potter family had added their own wards and protective measures. All of it coming together to make the manor better defended than the Fidelius Charm could make any home.

Lily and James both looked shocked at his outburst while Dumbledore had the decency to look ashamed, which just conformed what Harry had always thought. That Dumbledore had convinced them to use the Fidelius for some goddamn reason.

Lily got a determined look on her face and nodded at Harry in understanding. "Alright. James we're going to go to the manor."

James just nodded in his own agreement.

Harry felt something inside him relax slightly at the thought that they would be doing something smarter with the second change they just got.

Harry frowned a little at the realization that he'd just accidentally saved his parents lives.

What the hell did that mean for him?

Did he just make himself a new past?

Did he make an alternate time line?

Was he going to stop existing now?

Well, considering he didn't stop existing the second Voldemort died without killing James and Lily Harry thought that he might be relatively safe there.

Not that he actually knew all the rules that went along with time travel. Hermione probably would.

He felt a pang at the very thought that he might never see her again, if he was stuck in the past.

Well, he _would_ see her but it wouldn't be _his_ Hermione it would be the other Harry's Hermione.

He sighed gustily and rubbed his hand over his face, pushing his glasses up to pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration.

That was something he could think more about later, if he was still in the past. Or alternate past. Whatever.

The crack of apparition snapped him out of his thoughts and he pushed his glasses back on to look at who had decided to show up _now_.

"JAMES!" Sirius yelled, looking around frantically for a moment before his eyes fell on where everyone was standing around Voldemort's dead body.

"What in the bloody hell is going on here?" Sirius asked, looking shocked and with his wand out.

Harry saw the moment he realized Snape was there, his wand going up and a sneer coming over his face. "What the hell are _you_ doing here _Snivellus_?"

Harry groaned softly and rubbed at his temples with one hand while he raised the elder wand with the other and flicked a Silencio at Sirius.

"Let's not right now children, I'm getting a headache." Harry said on a sigh.

Sirius opened and closed his mouth several times, obviously trying to speak but unable to make any sound through the spell.

Dumbledore cleared his throat and looked at Harry pointedly. "Mr. Potter, could you _please_ refrain from casting on on innocent members of the public?"

Harry arched an eyebrow. "Oh, is that what they're calling aurors these days?"

Dumbledore looked surprised for a moment before he seemed to remember that Harry was from the future. "Ah, yes. Well, be that as it may, I'm sure Mr. Black will not do anything to _aggravate_ your budding headache." He sent a pointed look at Sirius, who looked mutinous instead of helpful.

Harry sighed again but dropped the spell.

" _What_ is going on?" Sirius yelled.

After almost thirty years Sirius was just the same as he always was. (Er, or something like that...)

Harry found it incredibly painful to be face to face with Sirius again after so many years. There was so much that Harry wanted to say to the man but _this_ Sirius wasn't _his_ Sirius and wouldn't understand anything Harry had to say.

Harry debated if it was worth the trouble of trying to leave so he wouldn't have to listen to everything be explained all over again.

He suspected that if he tried to go inside the cottage Lily would try and murder him, worried that he would try to do something to little Harry who was, presumably, still sleeping.

He realized that he had been zoning out Dumbledore explaining to Sirius who Harry was and his hand in killing Voldemort.

While Dumbledore was talking Snape had (wisely) put distance between himself and Sirius. The movement caught Harry's attention when Snape ended up on Harry's other side so that Harry was between him and everyone else.

That was odd.

Harry knew that Snape was more than capable of protecting himself but maybe Harry making that barrier had made Snape think that he'd rather deal with Harry than his former best friend, her husband, his best friend, _and_ Snape's boss.

Harry wasn't sure if that was really the best idea but it wasn't like he was about to hurt Snape, even if he was little asshole who was obsessively in love with Harry's mother.

He raised his eyebrow questioningly at Snape.

Snape eyed Harry for a few moments before he finally asked "Are you really from the future?"

And then trying to use legilimency on Harry.

Harry couldn't stop himself from laughing out loud at Snape's attempts to get into Harry's mind. After almost thirty years of practice Harry had become a proficient occlumens and Snape's weak attempt didn't even brush against Harry's mental shields.

Snape's eyes went huge in surprise while Harry looked over pointedly at Dumbledore. (The bastard didn't even look apologetic.)

Snape looked like he wanted to shuffle awkwardly in embarrassment but forced himself to hold still.

Harry shook his head in amusement. Only to go still when he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

He shot a silent stunning spell out causing the fat rat that had been slowly sneaking up to spy on the group.

The spell hit the rat and Harry quickly strolled forward to pick it up by the tail.

He conjured up a shoe box, the elder wand practically jumping to obey him, and stuffed the rat into the box before he fit the top back on. The wand still in his hand twitched and tried to seal the lid on but Harry put it away in his pocket before it could. (The little fuck.)

"What the hell was that?" Sirius asked, racing over to Harry and snatching the box out of his hands.

Harry stared after Sirius baffled and mildly annoyed at him.

He huffed and threw his hands up in exasperation. If Sirius wanted to hold onto the rat who was Harry to stop him?

Sirius walked back over to James and held the box out to him, showing him the rat inside. "It's Peter." he said through gritted teeth.

James looked from the rat to Sirius for a moment before he carefully took the box and put the lid on it. "We'll take him to the Ministry. I'm sure we'll be able to arrest him for _something_."

Harry suddenly remembered how Sirius had gone to Azkaban without a trial. He had a sinking feeling that that could have happened to other people.

Hell, Barty Crouch had faked his own son's death and then kept him a prisoner under the imperius curse for more than a _decade_.

Harry, having experienced both the imperius and dementors, knew that he if he had to pick between the two he would pick the dementors because then at least he would have a little bit of free will. (Even if is soul _was_ being slowly sucked out of his body he thought that slow torture would be better than no life at all.)

Harry wondered what in the ever loving hell he was doing in the past.

His fingers itched to pull the elder wand out of his pocket to try and get answers out of it but he knew the wand wouldn't give him any answers.

Not to mention if he suddenly pulled his wand out of his pocket and started yelling at it everyone would think he was insane. Honestly, he wouldn't blame any of them if they _did_ think that. Half the time the wand made him _feel_ insane. He had no idea how Dumbledore had dealt with it for so many years-

He went still and glanced at Dumbledore. The older wizard seemed to be busy watching an argument with James, Sirius, and Lily.

He certainly didn't _act_ like he knew Harry had his wand.

Maybe there were _two_ elder wands now?

Maybe if Harry wasn't in the past but _somewhere else_ Dumbledore didn't have the elder wand at all.

Harry had no fucking idea. Mostly he just wanted to take a long nap.

Maybe have a little drink and not think about what the hell he was going to do tomorrow if he woke up and wasn't back in his own time.

With his mind made up Harry felt a little better.

"Okay!" he said loudly, interrupting the argument that was still going on. "Voldemort is dead and everyone who knows about the Fidelius Charm is currently standing here, right?"

Everyone either nodded or muttered in agreement.

"Wonderful." Harry clapped his hands once and smiled at the group as a whole. "In that case I feel confident enough to leave you all alone to-"

"Oh no you don't!" Lily yelled, cutting him off and stomping over to grab his arm. "You are going to _explain_ some things to me Harry James Potter!"

Harry slowly raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly from her hand to her face.

Lily blushed lightly but didn't let go of him.

"Now, Miss Potter-" Dumbledore started but Lily spun around and pointed threateningly at him.

"No! I could have _died_ tonight and I'm going to get some answers from my son while I can. You all can do whatever the hell you want but _we're_ leaving now."

And then she turned on her heel and dragged Harry off of the street and into the cottage.

***

Harry thought the cottage was pretty cozy inside.

Warm colors, fun little magic knickknacks.

It felt like the kind of place Harry wouldn't mind retiring in.

If he ever wanted to retire. Which he didn't. He was nowhere near retirement age.

Lily had physically shoved him down onto a chair at the little kitchen table before she stormed off, probably to check up on little Harry.

Harry flicked his wand to convince the kitchen to start making tea. He watched the kettle on the stove while he absently ran his finger tips over the marks and nicks on top of the table.

He didn't remember this kitchen.

That wasn't much of a surprise. He hadn't lived in this house very long, after all.

He heard Lily on the stairs, heard her softly cooing at what must be little Harry.

"Poor sweetie, he can probably tell things have been going on without him and was crying over it." she said as she walked into the kitchen,

Harry looked over at his younger self, who was currently sucking on his thumb with teary eyes.

"Poor baby." he said softly, feeling a sharp sympathy pain shoot through his heart. "You almost had quite the night."

Lily looked from Harry to little Harry a few times before she seemed to make her mind up on something.

She strolled right over to Harry and held little Harry out to him pointedly.

Harry stared at his younger self for a long moment before he carefully reached out and picked him up.

Little Harry instantly snuggled up against his chest, digging his snotty face right under Harry's chin.

Harry held his breath for a moment, waiting to see if the world would imploded or something equally dramatic.

Nothing happened.

He and Lily both let out sighs of relief.

She turned away to open up on of the cupboards.

"Do you have kids?" she asked, faux causally.

Harry huffed softly in amusement. "No. Always the fun uncle, never the dad." he paused to glace at the Lily's tight shoulders before deciding if they were going to do whatever they were going to do he might as well just go all out. "I like it better that way. You can give the kid back at the end of the day."

She snorted and pulled a bottle of brandy out of the cupboard. She turned and held the bottle up questioningly.

"Yes please." he said with a grin.

She smirked and finished making the tea, topping both mugs off a large helping of the brandy.

She set the mugs down on the table before picking the bottle back up and taking a huge swig.

Harry found himself laughing loudly at the sight of his mother alive and beautiful and drinking in her own kitchen.

He felt the weight of little Harry on his lap, his little breaths soft and gentle against his neck and decided that if he was going to be stuck back in time for a while, he might as well make the best of it.

He grinned at Lily as she threw herself down in the chair across from him.

"You want me to start at the beginning?" He asked.

She blew at her tea for a moment before taking a careful sip.

"Yes." she finally said, eyes bright with excitement.

"Well then." Harry said taking a deep breath. "Once upon a time, in a terrible town called Cokeworth, there lived two little magical children."

Lily's mouth dropped open wide in shock and Harry grinned mischievously at her. After all, she never said she wanted to hear _his_ beginning.

And of course, he desperately wanted her version of events.

After all these years it had always been 'James' this and 'your father' that and Harry was _sick_ of it.

It was time he got his mother's story straight from the source.

**Author's Note:**

> Super special thank you to my babe [TailorNorata](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TailorNorata/pseuds/TailorNorata) without who this would have no actual plot and probably have never actually made it from my brain to the doc and who told me to just kill Voldie now and then gave me different ways to do (i neither came up with him falling on his wand nor realized it was any sort of symbolism for anything other than "idiot ran around with a sharp broken stick wtf did he expect?")
> 
> come hang out with me on [tumblr](https://graciebirdie.tumblr.com/) if you feel like it


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